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Somalia currently has about 2 to 3 million IDPs hence the need for reintegration into society. People with the right experiences are needed to tackle the problem of the IDPs who are really destitute and need solutions such as housing, medical aid, shelter, and livelihood. 'Different organizations working on different areas of the humanitarian sector need to come together to work on lasting solutions for Somali IDPs as a humanitarian intervention'. Humanitarian Translation, a local NGO said. The interventions may include durable solution techniques including resettlement, integration, and repatriation with reintegration. More than 264,000 IDPs were evicted during the year, making forced evictions one of the main triggers of secondary displacement in the country. Disasters triggered 479,000 new displacements.  In common with other countries in East Africa, Somalia was affected by widespread flooding in the second half of 2019 during an unusually wet rainy season influenced by El ...

  HEALTH SERVICES: Kiunga women entertain guests during a recent visit by Governor Issa Timamy. Image: CHETI PRAXIDES Lamu residents on the Kenya-Somalia border have decried poor health conditions that have left them predisposed to constant infectious disease outbreaks believed to be from neighbouring Somalia. Residents of Ishakani, Ras Kiamboni, Sarira, Kiunga, Madina, Mkokoni, and Kiwayu have frequently been victims of cholera outbreaks and other infectious illnesses said to be originating from neighbouring Somalia. For years, Somali citizens, more so pregnant women and children, have crossed into Kenya to Kiunga and Ishakani in search of medical attention, a situation that has left residents in the areas exposed to disease outbreaks. They want more hospitals and dispensaries established in the areas to alleviate the situation. Residents of the immediate border town of Kiunga complained of the lack of drugs and personnel in the dispensaries and called on Lamu Governor Issa Timamy...

  This file photo shows UNICEF country representative Shaheen Nilofer (R) presenting medical supplies to an official in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Jan. 24, 2022. (Photo by Fred Mutune/Xinhua) NAIROBI, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has appealed for 171 million U.S. dollars to respond to the rise in cholera cases in 11 countries in eastern and southern Africa. It said 28 million people are in need in Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, South Sudan, Burundi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. "To respond to the increasing needs of children and families in the region impacted by cholera, UNICEF is urgently calling for funding of 171 million U.S. dollars," it said in a statement on Monday. The UNICEF said the funds will be used to provide lifesaving water, sanitation and hygiene, health, risk communication, nutrition, child protection, and education services to women and children affected by the outbreak. The 11 co...

  The first DNA recovered from members of the medieval Swahili civilisation has revealed that Africans and Asians were intermingling along the East African coast more than a thousand years ago,  a study said Wednesday. The authors of the study said it confirms ancient oral histories about the shared ancestry of Swahili people, as well as settling a “longstanding controversy” from colonial times about how much Africans contributed to the civilisation. Starting from the seventh century AD, the Swahili civilisation included the coastal regions of modern day Kenya, Tanzania, southern Somalia, northern Mozambique, Madagascar and the Comoros and Zanzibar archipelagoes.  Millions of modern day people along these coasts identify as Swahili, and the language is one of the most widely spoken in the region. For the study, an international team of researchers sequenced the DNA of 80 people who lived in different Swahili areas from 1250 to 1800 AD.  They said that from around 100...

Riot police officers fire tear gas to disperse supporters in Nairobi, Kenya [John Muchucha/Reuters] Nairobi (HOL) - As anti-government protests intensify in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, has urged calm and dialogue to resolve the ongoing crisis. Thousands of protesters, led by opposition leader Raila Odinga and his party, Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition, are demanding electoral justice, lower food prices, and the resignation of President William Ruto. The government has declared the protests illegal, but Odinga asserts that Kenyans have a right to demonstrate. The unrest began on March 21, 2023, resulting in the loss of lives, property damage, and economic disruption in Nairobi. A heavy police presence has tried to disperse protesters with water cannons and tear gas. Civil society groups and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) have urged authorities to uphold citizens' constitutional right to peaceful demonstr...

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African bloc, on Monday appealed for 2.69 billion U.S. dollars in funding to save millions of people at risk of starvation in Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia due to drought. The situation continues to worsen, with 47 million people being highly food insecure and some at risk of dying of starvation, IGAD Executive Secretary Workneh Gebeyehu said. "Some 70 percent of these 47 million people live in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia," he said in a statement released in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. "This is why, today, we solemnly call on the international community to help us prevent a major humanitarian disaster by committing requisite resources to save lives and livelihoods in the short term, and continue investing in resilience building in the medium and long term." According to the bloc, Somalia needs 1.6 billion dollars to provide food and non-food items to the drought-affected communities and the internally dis...